Planning the Huckepack Technology : advanced Transport Technologies in EU

In the last thirty years the West European area has noted a permanent economic growth that has been reflected also on the growth of the overall transport operations. The transport sector in the European Union has recorded an estimated 4 per cent gross national product of the Union and employed more than 6 million people. Road transport of goods is constantly increasing and occupies mainly the dominant position in cargo transport. At the same time the share of railways has been reduced over the last thirty years. Therefore, there is an increasing need for the data on intermodal transport. The rail/road system combines the advantages of both rail and road and can make a considerable contribution towards resolving intra-European traffic problems. The success of huckepack transport must be based on consistent policies with respect to standards for both loading units and the vehicles carrying them. The carriage of goods, especially in international transport requires co-operation between several carriers from all the traffic branches. One carrier cannot deal with the whole transport task due to the diversity of transport routes. Depending on the organisation and the technical and technological co-ordination and co-operation of the participating transport branches, by simultaneous usage of transport and manipulation means in various combinations of transport, different forms have developed, that is, different techniques of rationalisation in the exploitation of the intermodal transport. This work will be based on the road and railway traffic and the problems concerning that most of the combined transport is “ unaccompanied” i.e. the loading unit is not accompanied by a driver, equal conditions of competition between various modes of transport, situation regarding border controls, interoperability, problems of bottlenecks and impact of new technologies in combined transport as the basis for the development of advanced transport technologies.